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Sunday, September 11, 2011

We All Have a Story for This Day

Today is 9/11/2011. Like anybody else who was alive on 9/11/2001, I think about where I was and how I felt. How that day changed my world and those around me. The unusual thing about my memory of the day is that even if these events hadn't occurred, I would have remembered that morning.

When I was in high school I had a boyfriend whose mom once told me to make sure that I stopped in life and took mental snapshots of things that were important, no matter how small they might seem. It was one of those pieces of advice that stood out in my mind as a 16-year-old, and still does all these years later. There are the moments I captured that most would guess (birthdays, weddings, etc). But, there are just normal moments that I thought were what made life worth it. Standing at the sliding glass door of my apartment watching it rain one afternoon. Watching a child help another stand up after a bike fall. Seeing a crystal blue sky out my work window on a morning in September.

There was one small tiny cloud that was shaped in a curl that floated by my window and then there was just a beautiful blue.

The next moment a co-worker ran down the hall screaming to turn on the radio.

I hold onto the perfect sky memory of the morning each year when this anniversary comes up. It is that early morning moment that got me through watching all the horror for weeks on tv immediately afterward. It is that moment and all the other snapshots I've taken in my life that I want to remember, not these horrible scenes. But, like everybody who was alive that day, I do remember. I do think about those who perished and those who loved them. I do think about how life and the world changed. And then, I think about all my snapshots...